Disquisition by Scripps, E.W., An old daguerreotype, October 22, 1909

              Ohio University Libraries, E.W. Scripps Papers, MSS 117, Series 4, http://media.library.ohiou.edu/scripps
" October 22, 1909.
AN OLD DAGUERRFDTYPE.
The other day, at La JaIl 8., I saw an old dagurreotype portrait
of myself taken \Vhen I was probably about fifteen years old. I had
half an hour alone and I closely studied the portrait and compared it
wi th my present appearance and personality.
Only ve~j few men resemble the portraits of their boyhood
or even of their adolescence. I am not one of those few.
One thing that impressed rle very' strongly while I was looking
at this portrait of the boy face was that it possessed a good deal of
mentality and still more spiri tuali ty or refinement. I well enough
remembered that boy) end I knew all about him; I knew that what was in­side
of that boy was, to at least a veri large extent, the very reverse
of what one might expect by looking at his face. 'The face itself did
not indicate any great streTl~h of character J or any great will power,
it did not indicate either sensitiveness or vanity. The chin was
weak and the eyes indicated a dreamy nature; and the eyes did not bear
false witness. But every other lineament and expression was deceptive.
There was some evidence of vanity too to be found in the long
hair parted in the middle - my hair was very red and very thick and
fins, shiny and somewhat wavy. though not curly.
It was the f ashi on in tho se days, as I suppo se it has al VI ays
been the fashion, for people to make sport of red hair J 8..11.d I remember
that I WaJ!, chaffed a great deal about the color of my hair. I remember
also that I wondered more at this than I was ange!'ed by it. As I did
not know anything of the world in those days I supposed that I V{aB sur-rounded
by a peculiarly unfortunate, that is to say stupid., and ignorant
class of people.